Rodney joins pennant race with trade to Cubs

Mariners fans know this story: Player flunks out of Mariners season, graduates to pennant race.

That is the case for Fernando Rodney, who failed as closer and was fired Sunday. The Mariners traded him him for cash Thursday to the Chicago Cubs, who are in the second wild-card spot in the National League.

Of course, to keep the job, Rodney has to pitch far better than he did in 2015 in Seattle.

The key element here is that Cubs manager Joe Maddon had Rodney in 2012 and 2013 when both were in Tampa Bay.

“He’s got the kind of stuff to get out both righties and lefties,” Maddon told reporters after the Cubs’ 9-1 loss in San Francisco that left them 73-53. “I know he had trouble, struggled a bit this year. But I’m eager to see it in person and find out what’s going on.”

Rodney, 38, was designated for assignment Sunday, meaning the club had 10 days to trade or release him. He already cleared revocable waivers that the club asked for him and several players after July 31 trade deadline.

An All–Star in 2014 with a club-record 48 saves, Rodney, 38, lost command of his fastball, part of a bullpen-wide collapse that saw the group fall from baseball’s best to one of its worst in less than a season.

YourThoughts

Alan

I expect Rodney will do rather well in Chicago.

Effzee

Its like, no matter what they address, something else goes wrong. Have badass pitching? Sweet! No offense for you! Spend a bunch of dough on sluggers for once? Sweet! The pitching is going to fall apart!

There can only be one of two realities going on here:

The Mariner’s are clearly a “Feeder Franchise” for whatever MLB considers to be the “Real Teams.” Howard probably knows. Its probably part of the deal when you run the M’s, passed down from on high. This is why he can see the things we all see, yet not ever learn or improve. He’s basically enabled by the league to ignore the product on the field, because its as irrelevant to them as it is to him. This allows him to focus solely on bobblehead nights, charging too much for beer, and making sure guys like Willie Bloomquist have jobs.

Or… the level of dunderheadedness in the Front Office is so high, its so thoroughly saturated in the very fabric of the organization, that it actually has a real, observable, tangible, catastrophic affect on the performance of the human baseball players when they are here.

There are no other options.

coug73

Maddon, needs relieve, Rodney, needs a change, both know one another, I think this could be a positive for both men. Hopefully, JZ didn’t give up to many collectable bobbleheads.

aeya1eethie

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